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Velvet longhorned beetle (Trichoferus campestris)

Velvet longhorned beetle Synonyms: Hesperophanes campestris

Common Names: Mulberry longhorn beetle

Description: Introduced to North America through infested wood packing material, logs, or other wood material, such as furniture.

Identification: Adult males are 9.6-18 mm long while females range from 15.6-18.9 mm. long, parallel-sided, body is uniformly brownish black to with a golden pubescence and sporadic long hairs extending past pubesence. Antennae are slightly short than or as long as the body in males and shorter than body in females.

Hosts: Native to Asia and Russia. Mostly found in/on stressed or unhealthy trees and dry wood logs from almost any hosts, as long as bark is present. Host range is close to 40 genera of coniferous and deciduous trees but their preferred living hosts include apple/crabapple, mulberry, sweet cherry and peach.

Life Cycle: Mating occurs from June to early August. Eggs are small (1.9 mm long and 0.6 mm wide), white in color and oval-shaped. Larvae reach 15-30mm and are white in color with six short legs. Head is dark with 3 simple eyes. Pupae are 18mm long and whitish beige in color with dark spines running down the back.

Impact and Damage: Larvae damage trees by tunneling within the trunk and larger branches of host. Damage may lead to thinning or yellowing of tree canopy, sucker growth and weakening of branches. Wounds caused by beetle may lead to secondary infestation or infection.

Similar species: Larvae can be confused with those of the Old house borer (Hylotrupes bajulus) while adults may be confused with Hesperophanes pubescens

Monitoring and rapid response: Trap and lure combination has been the most effective way of surveying. Traps are a black cross wane panel trap with fluoropolymer resin and is effective for 28 days. Traps are set at 4.9 ft high and 32.8 ft apart and placed from June to August.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Purdue University Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS), the U.K. Dept. for Environmental Food and Rural Affairs, and the USDA APHIS PPQ.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Velvet longhorned beetle

Scientific Name:

Trichoferus campestris

Family:

Cerambycidae
(Longhorn beetle)

Habit:

Insects